Requiem
by SotF
Summary: Captain Rex and the aftermath of Order 66.
1. Requiem

**AN:** Blame this on getting my hands on the Clone Wars movie, and add in some of the situations in the series with a wonder of what would happen with Order 66.

* * *

"You know, Commander," Rex stated as the star destroyer entered hyperspace from Utapau, "I understand him now."

A pause as the other clone considered this, unsure what his subordinate was meaning.

"Some of us are different enough to learn this, it proves we're more than they planned for us," the captain stated, "More than they can handle."

"What do you mean?"

"After what just happened, it was a revelation about our brothers," the tone was almost mournful, "And I realized that only a few of us were anything but puppets."

He reacted in an instant as the clone commanders eyes widened, quickly kicking his superiors helm across the room.

"And you know something, while we were made for loyalty," anger flashed through his eyes as he drew his blaster, "I realize now that we can give it to who we want to, and the Republic, or rather this Empire that it's become, has proven that it betrays such loyalty in what we were ordered to do, what you ordered and did back there."

"Our orders came from the Chancillor himself!" the other protested.

"Orders aren't everything, General Skywalker proved that several times since I met him, and I betrayed what he showed me back there by not at least trying to stop it," he paused for a breath, "I won't do so again, even if I die because of it."

A flash as he fired the weapon point blank into the clone commanders head, directly between the eyes.

"Slick was right," he added as the man fell to the deckplates before him, "I won't live a slave, but my squad cannot abide by this insanity taking over the Republic."

A moments pause as he watched Cody breathe his last.

"And if I must betray our brothers to free the ones I can from the Empire," a moments sadness as he pulled his helmet into position upon his own head, "Then so be it."

He turned away, exiting the room and into the corridor, a half dozen clones waiting for him and recieved a nod.

"Fives, Echo," he ordered, "Your with me, we'll take the bridge with what we can."

"Denal, take the rest and," he added, signaling the remaining troopers, "Vent the atmosphere from the environmental controls."

"Those of our Brothers who are with us are in position elsewhere, the ship will be ours," he stated with a tone as calm as he could manage, "And may the force be with us."

Heading off, he breathed a silent prayer, hopefully there would be enough of his brothers who could be free of this madness enveloping the GAR to help him rescue Ahsoka before those loyal to the Empire could get to her.


	2. Rescue on Ryloth

**AN:** This one is shortly after the first part.

* * *

The shuttle dropped low, the black paint visible along the hull of the Lambda class as it surveyed the landscape below.

Ryloth was bringing back memories as he glanced over at the similarly painted duo of ARC-170's in escort positions on either side as the shuttle skimmed the cliffs as they surveyed the landscape of the band of habitable space between the fire and ice of the sides of the planet.

It had taken three days to reach planet, leaving their Star Destroyer, now named the Twilight after a smaller craft that remained in his memories, hidden out of the system and taking a smugglers route in to search for Ahsoka Tano.

He remembered the orders that had sent her there to recover while Anakin was sent to Nelvaan with Obi-Wan, Torrent being assigned to remain on Coruscant and ending up in the battle there.

The Togruta had nearly been killed shortly before that, and had apparently recovered with plans to be picked up by Open Circle on its way back to Coruscant from Utapau.

He'd managed to get his hands upon the records covertly while the ships codes still worked with the holonet, technically they still could access it, but the more they used it, the greater the risk of the Empire believing that the Twilight wasn't destroyed as it was currently believed.

Tano was declaired dead, a supposed traitor to the Empire, but there had been no proof given as the squad sent after her while she wandered around the exterior of the city hadn't remained to check with their armor not designed for the local environment, only a group of shineys who were taking on an unarmed and injured Jedi.

Cowards and betrayers.

"Sir," he heard the voice of Slammer from one of the fighters in escort, "My astromech has found one lifesign nearby, its weak, but it's in the right place for where she was reported as being downed."

"Understood," he responded, flipping the switch to raise the wings into landing position and moving to settle in.

He turned as the craft touched down and the hatch began to open.

"Bring her in," he ordered the others with him.

He signaled the second group waiting there, one of the commando pods picked up, "Thetas, you have your orders."

"Yes sir," they responded, the black armored figures exiting beside the medical team he'd brought.

He hated being forced to give the order, but those responsible for his friends injuries or death would have to pay.

And betrayers were no longer among those called brother.

The added benefit of being able to acquire the new armor design the Empire had handed out for their own insertions would let them rescue the brothers imprisoned by the Empire.


	3. Theta Squad

**Note:** This happens right after the previous one, and while it is a data dump, it does also work as a background for Theta Squad.

* * *

  
The hum of the engines signaled the five armored forms to let out a barely contained breath.

Theta squad was not a standard Clone Commando pod for various reasons.

The first is that they formed the squad on their own from the remains of a half dozen pods after a horrifically failed mission.

Kren, a world they spent four years on, was a disaster for them.

A traitor let the seps know they were coming and their insertion ended up with three transports being shot down across the planet with seven survivors from the commandos and a single clone pilot.

They'd hidden their fallen brothers and stockpiled the equipment they carried.

Alec Thorne joined them there, he'd been a Jedi once, or rather a youngling shipped off to the medcorp before the war broke out and the seps took the planet only a week after Geonosis.

He'd left the hospital there and never looked back.

At first he was loyal to the Republic, but never to the Jedi.

He'd found them hiding out and decided to help.

When the hospital was bombed, he started helping more than just patching them up.

When two more of the commandos died during a mission they planet to take out the hyperdrive construction facility, the others decided to give him one of the stored sets of armor since his identity was discovered by the CIS forces.

Eventually, they'd created a plan to escape the planet, taking out the communications systems of the world before hijacking a light freighter in the process, but losing another commando on the way out.

Four years on the planet and five clones survived them.

They'd decided on Theta for their name from the only Pod to be completely wiped out during their insertion, a tribute to the fallen.

They'd managed to obtain a transmission of a Republic attack on Utapau and chose it as their course.

That was an hour before Order 66.

They arrived after the remaining Star Destroyer was purged of "traitors" and agreed with Rex's views.

Ryloth was their first actual chance to complete a mission since the disaster that left them behind.

Four commandos and someone they viewed as if he were one of them from the beginning.

Alec had landed the Memory of Kren, the same HWK-290 transport they hijacked to escape the planet they'd fought on for years and prepared for the other four to infiltrate the city before suiting up in the armor he'd claimed so long ago and positioned himself to cover them.

A running blaster battle through a twi'lek city was harrowing, but doable as they hijacked a load lifter to steal the shipment of stormtrooper armor the local garrison had been sent.

It was the star destroyers arrival in orbit that let them slip out and into the freighter to make the run for orbit without pursuit.


	4. Devils Bargain

**AN:** This is between 9 months to a year after the first ficlet

* * *

Rex hated Geonosians due to the deaths of his brothers their clankers caused during the war, but his true brothers had been gathering in secret under the banner he was providing while concealing it from the Empire and the bugs weren't his enemy anymore.

No, his enemy was the twisted remnant of what he once served with honor.

But the Empire had lost what honor the Republic held dear, and any enemy of the Empire was a possible ally.

Besides, they needed the help.

The lone Victory-class Star Destroyer that was the centerpiece of the small fleet he was gathering, mainly formed of Acclamator-class and a pair of Venators and a mix of corvettes and smaller craft, was already waiting for a restocking when they took it after Utapau. Of course, with the source of most of those ships being those the Empire had abandoned for newer ships left them all a little worse for the wear and needing some repairs.

He had ordered the fleet to Mustafar in order to find out what happened to Skywalker after finding Ahsoka left for dead, and well, nearly actually being dead, he had begun looking for the remaining Jedi he had served under and he was officially listed as murdered there by the Confederate leadership while acting as bodyguard for Padme Amidala who was to engage in peace talks of some sort.

Whatever had happened before that was apparently highly classified, and he couldn't figure out why.

Commander Gizor Dellso, the self proclaimed last-commander of the confederacy, was already on the planet, and he had little in the way of the manpower needed for what he wanted while Rex needed the technology the geonosian had and the materials for repairs, not to mention what information he could find on the platforms records.

"Denal," Fiver yelled from across the landing platform, "General Skywalker was here, his fighter is still on a landing pad on the other side of the facility."

He nodded in response as his mind whirled.

If the senator was here, then why the hell would Skywalker have used his fighter.

"Call the ship, have them send a pilot down to retrieve it," Rex ordered before turning to face the Slicer, "Is Artoo in his slot?"

"No sir."

He nodded, "Make sure to look for the astromech or his remains, he may have been a droid, but he was one of ours."

"Yes sir."

He turned back to face the bug.

"Commander, then we'll do this, you help us repair our ships and we'll help you get his hunk of junk back online."


	5. Dogfight

**Note:** Rearranged the last few chapters into chronological order

* * *

"Brand," came the call over the comms, "We have incomming, multiple vectors."

"Stay with me Slammer," he responded calmly as he brought his fighter around to join the other members of Bravo flight on CAP, "What do we have?"

"Corvette and a half dozen TIEs."

"Lance, Thorn," he ordered, "Form up."

The dark paneling of their new fighters gave him a grin.

Their alliance with part of the Geonosians had paid fruit in the form of some serious upgrades to their fighter compiment, taking the ETA-2 design to an entirely new level.

"Twilight," he stated, "We have incomming traitors, request ARC support to deal with their cap ship."

"Are you sure you can deal with the fighters without help?" Rex's voice came through clearly.

"Four on six," Brand stated, "They'd have to be pretty lucky to keep up in those flying caskets of theirs."

"Understood, deploying ARC's to deal with the corvette."

"Roger that," he grinned, "Bravo, lock S-foils into attack positions and accelerate to attack speed."

"Understood bossman," Thorn responded as the wings of the four fighter extended.

"We do this the easy way, pare them down with missiles, then we go guns."

"Let's show these bastards why they can't match us!" Lance howled.

"Cut the chatter Lance," he ordered, "We can have that later without letting the traitors get close."

He glanced over his shoulder at the silver and black dome of his astromech, "You ready buddy?"

A whistle in response as he brought his targeting computer online and armed a pair of concussion missiles while bringing them up to dual fire mode.

"Bravo lead," he stated with a grin, "Locked on the closest bandit."

The other three echoed his chime as the first flashes of turbolaser fire from the twilight flashed through the stars while the droid chimed in that the heavy support was launching from the underbelly.

"Bravo flight," he ordered, "Unleash hell."

Eight iridescent streams of flame burst into existance as the concussion missiles rocketed through the void at the enemy in a flash they could barely track.

"Switch to cannons and clear the survivors."

"Roger."

The nearest TIE took a missile straight in the cockpit window and the warhead jammed in, its thrusters sending the fighter into an erratic path as its systemsattempted to compensate for the dud weapon only to have its right panel slam into its twin ripping the fragile craft to pieces in a blast of debris and flared fuel before burning out just as quickly, a momentary star in the sky.

Another broke, trying to evade the weapons homing in like firaxin sharks after a bleeding fish, only managing to move enough to be hit dead on in the side.

One managed to make it around and make a run for it by pulling behind another, letting that fighter take the missiles intended for it as well as the ones aimed there, vaporizing plasteel blossomed in its place before Lance's first shots severed one of the panels and sent it out of control.

"Split by pairs," Brand ordered in an instant, "I've got the one on the left."

Affirmatives flashed from the other three as they broke, each passing cleanly through the gaps in the sheets of cover fire the star destroyer gave.

"Bossman," Slammer stated, "I've got green."

"Take the shot," he responded in a flash while flaring vertical to let his wingman take the lead and fire burning streams of energy that cut through the enemy fighter as easily as a lightsaber through tinnies.

"Good," a grin under the helmet as his eyes flashed across the horizon to track the remaining TIE and his sqadmates in pursuit only to catch it heading right towards his partner, "Slammer, hit the deck."

Bursts and flashes as the shields flickered.

"Well, the bugs do good work," Slammer chuckled, "In the 2's I'd have been droid bait."

Lance and Thorn split, one under and one over to pass Slammer and converge their fire on the last one, shots ripping it apart in the mixed streams of energy bursts.

"Alright boys," Brand ordered, "Now move to cover the ARC's, they've got a big boy to down, then we go home."

"Understood."


	6. Lamus Survivors

**Note:** No real clue when this happens in the storyline, but it is before Ahsoka wakes up but after Rhyloth

* * *

Lamus was a lush world, teaming with life and yet no significant presence from the galaxy at large.

One relatively small settlement near a large lake was the only detectable sign of civilization beyond the beacon they detected nearly opposite it.

An emergency beacon from a Republic medical ship, one with an ID code he remembered from the war for a damn good reason.

A friend and an enemy were each on that ship when it vanished after Boz Pity.

They had found the Bright Flight.

The small number of life signs there was comforting actually, a sign that the dark jedi sent off on that ship hadn't killed everyone onboard when it crashed.

Adding Theta to the landing team would work as they had the closest thing to a jedi his fleet had, and a LAAT/i was useful in making sure that he wouldn't have unleashed her on the galaxy again.

He could smell the vegetation while leaving his helmet on the hook inside the gunship, face to face was the easiest way to do things.

Footsteps caught his attention and he signaled the commandos with him to prepare for a possible fight.

The familiar face he'd remembered from the battlefield came into view dead ahead.

One word escaped his lips, one word with so many meanings with how he said it calm, cold, and as casually as he could force it through his lips.

"Ventress."


	7. Armory

**Note:** No real clue when this happens as of yet, blame reading Starship Troopers

* * *

The others called him Twitch for a damn good reason.

He was a demolitions, repair, and sabotage expert originally part of Beta Squad before the disaster that claimed his podmates.

Hammer was working on the computers end of it while he'd been working on the more physical end.

When they'd stolen the Memory, it's cargo had come with it.

Namely a shipment of Corellian Power Suits that were being shipped to some CIS mercenaries.

With years of scrounging and making due, the two technical clone commandos had begun working on an idea for making the powered armor useful.

The fact that half the equipment they were messing with was illegal in most civilized systems, and the rest, well, that would be better left unsaid.

A large portion of the phrik alloy they'd gotten their hands on was being smelted under the guidance of a pair of astromechs they'd commandeered while they sandwiched the new armor with plasteel and a half dozen other types ontop of the stripped armor plating.

They'd decided to use what they had and make some monsters.

Five suits of the armor were being put together at the same time, more of a limitation on what they were willing to do rather than anything else. Get Theta some new toys to play with.

Jump servos mixed with modified versions of the jump trooper packs salvaged from the stores of the late Commander Cody's personal squad for added mobility, adding the re purposed pieces of remotes and datapads as well as a built in generator.

Unfortunately, they weren't allowed to play with the handful of portable proton torpedo launchers the fleet had, but they did manage to pull some concussion missile launchers out of the storage bays since they had more of them, and well, more fighters than pilots really.

"Done," he chimed while setting aside the arcwrench.

"Done with what?" he heard the tone of Captain Rex and jerked to something resembling attention.

"Making some new armor to play with."

"Why?"

"Well, Katarn armor just isn't that good at creating mayhem," he answered, "We're good at causing destruction, but stealth isn't something we're that good at, normally we slip in while the enemy is running away fro the explosions we've caused."

Rex started to groan as he stared at the monstrosities before him that looked almost like giant parodies of the clone trooper armor.

"We added shields and dug up some stealth field generators to integrate," Hammer explained, "Flame projectors, linked heavy repeaters, not to mention the concussion missiles and thermal detonators."

Rex blinked, after working with Jedi, he expected this sort of thing to come from them.

Well, them or the irregulars such as worked with General Kota.

Theta Squad was either so fucked up in the tank to think normally, or perhaps that planet they'd been stranded on had something in the water.


	8. A Failed Jedi

**Note:** This one is shortly after the pickup of Ventress

* * *

Alec grinned as he tossed the datapad aside.

For some force forsaken reason, Rex had put him in charge of the Jedi they picked up until she woke up.

Part of the reason was that he, supposedly, could have become a Jedi in his own right.

He'd known for a long time that he'd never be a jedi, no matter what the masters had said.

Hell, he'd been a Padawan for a full two weeks before getting shipped off to the medical corps.

Of course, the fact that his supposed master had said he needed to learn to empathize with people other than those he trusted, not that demoting him and sending him off to a backwater world did much about that anyway.

The Jedi healer had decided that when he'd discovered that for every way to heal someone, at least with the force, there were ways to reverse it with the same technique. His willingness to use those techniques that way were part of the reason he'd ended up without a master then.

They'd been sent to a small world and had been helping the sick when someone held the clinic hostage with his master inside before taking her hostage at blaster point and the threat of planted bombs.

Thankfully, he'd been elsewhere and thus could do something about it.

Lightsabers had never been his strong suit, and he'd always figured that it would be much better to use a blaster and wear some armor or get ahold of a shield than learn how to deflect blaster bolts back at the shooter and there were better ways to eliminate foes without either.

Windu had been teaching the various forms when he'd asked the class about what Alec had later learned was supposed to be "Form 0", not that he'd known that at the time, and had answered the question about not drawing a lightsaber as a positive because in any fight you should have taken steps to incapacitate your foe before they got into melee reach.

But more to the point, he had ended up doing several things that his master would never have approved of.

He'd been asked by the local police forces to aid in the rescue operations and had quickly agreed to it.

One of the people responsible had been injured in the taking of the hostages, and Alec had dutifully healed him.

However, then he'd decided to interrogate the man himself, making the bastard watch as the blaster burns were allowed to return with an agonizing slowness while he mentioned the hundreds of healing techniques learned over the course of his training...and the fact that each could easily cause the same effects if used in reverse.

The man had caved in minutes.

Requisitioning a rifle, he'd taken up position blocks away and used the force to find those who had taken the hostages within the building they were using and started shooting.

Killing never bothered him, at least as long as there was a reason for it.

No purpose in senseless deaths.

Rescue of someone connected to him was his first goal, but his master didn't see it that way when he walked into the building to let the hostages out. Some poodoo about how he was to attached to her.

Personally, he had never really wanted to be a jedi to begin with, but the choice to join the order had been made for him.

Someday, Alec would like to find his parents and, just once, look into their eyes and ask why they abandoned him to the jedi.

It wasn't that he hated the jedi, far from it, they served their purpose and he hated hearing what had happened to them.

But he could never agree with the philosophy they'd tried to cram down his throats.

What's the point of living if you cannot feel alive?

But he'd abandoned the Medicorps when the war came tot he mudball they'd sent him to, and had found a family of his own there in the Commando survivors.

A fluctuation in the force drew his attention before a chime warned him of the change in breathing patterns asthe girl Rex brought from the surface of Ryloth started to wake up.

He grinned as her eyes opened and flickered in the dim light of the medbay.

"Morning."


	9. Malevolant Memories

**Note:** Again, no clue where this one goes

* * *

"We don't have the fighter complement that would make those ships worth the crews," Rex commented as he gazed at the two Venator class craft that he was forced to pass judgment on, "Reinforcing what we have does shift the balance more towards the naval personnel on our current ships until we can get some more Victory or Imperator class ships, but its better than keeping two empty carriers with us."

A nod from a few members of the crew.

"Actually, there may be another option," Twitch spoke up as he pressed a few keys on his datapad and slid it towards the defacto leader of their fleet, "With the traitors attack on the Geonosian allies we had, the stockpiles they'd stashed are now effectively ours."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Brand asked his brother, "That we start carrying Vulture droids on those two?"

"No," he responded, "On one of the deep space storage depot's the CIS had, they had a very interesting stockpile of equipment."

Rex seemed to raise a single eyebrow in silent confusion.

"We have two Ion Pulse Cannons and the plans to power them," the commando continued, "The Hanger bays of the Venators is large enough to mount one inside if we strip out the snub support equipment."

A pause with a shrug, "Most likely, a good chunk of the ground complement would also need to be removed, but both of those would help keep the other ships fully equipped for use."

"Ion Pulse Cannons?" the fighter pilot asked with a blink.

"They were developed for the Sep's Subjugator-class ships," Twitch explained, "And while we can't support the full load out that the Malevolance or the Devastation could, we can easily support one on a ship with a slight loss o firing speed, but it would give us an advantage if used correctly."

He grinned, "Besides, I want to see the traitors go boom."


	10. Duel

**Note:** This is a lot later in the timeline.

* * *

Great, just great.

Alec dodged the crimson blade that left a line of molten metal across the wall right at neck height.

They'd gotten a tip of a possible Jedi and had moved in to attempt a rescue.

Unfortunately, his team had gotten there to late.

The Jedi was already dead, and his killer, one of Palpie's Inquisitors, was still there when they'd attacked the jail.

As he leaped backwards from another slash, the permacrete of the structure seemed to growl at him while shaking from what had to be the rest of the squads engagement with the local and the inquisitors stormtroopers.

The force be with him, well, that wasn't quite useful when facing off against another force user.

Jolting backwards to avoid another slash that still managed to scorch bits of his hair.

"Well, I needed a haircut anyway," he commented before continuing the move into a back flip over the next part of the attack.

His foe was good, Alec was pretty sure the cloaked man was either a master or nearly there with Shien with the sweeping attacks that kept on being used and the chaining of them.

At least, with just him being the opponent in an enclosed space, that style was more limited compared to the style he'd preferred when forced to train with such an archaic weapon, namely Ataru.

Forcing his mind to relax, as he went vertical, flipping to kick off the ceiling in midair in order to finally get the moment of time between dodges to draw his blaster pistols, unfortunately his rifle was still laying where it had fallen in three pieces after being used to slow the Inquisitor down.

He landed with a grunt and rolled clear of another attack before lunging, alternating fire from his pistols, purposefully spreading each shot into a pattern.

It was one he'd remembered from his time in the Temple, one of the training droids had used that pattern as an opening move every single time someone trained against it.

While it was designed to help show the benefits of Soresu moves, but at the same time it let him hide some of his skill by inciting the specific results he wanted.

Diving forwards as the last of the quartet of shots was fired, he passed the mans feet before rolling to his feet once more while the man tried to attack in a spin.

Good, he could evacuate if things kept going his way with the transperisteel window at the end overlooking the rooftops.

His opponent lunged as Alec felt the forces warning and dropped into a crouch.

Flowing through him, he let the power of the force free to slam the overextended dark Jedi upwards to smash into one of the lights. The sound of at least one rib breaking left the force adept wince in instinctive sympathy.

Flickering before dying, the act plunged the segment of the corridor into shadows while the man landed on his feet with a roar of anger.

Alec fell back, a glance at his chrono marked the remaining time in the countdown for what he'd told those he claimed as brothers would be given before joining them in flight to the spaceport.

A series of powerful strikes made him blink, but cost him half of one of the pistols.

Apparently his foe was also good at Juyo, or were those parts of the expanded Vaapad?

The second could make the lightsaber, in his not so humble opinion, a halfway decent weapon if it wasn't for the time required to train to reach that point, but Juyo was dangerous in a tight space in and of itself as an incomplete form.

No more overextention in this one that he could take advantage of, but at the same time the man wasn't quite as good with it. But then Shien was designed for facing multiple enemies while Juyo and Vaapad were just as good against a solitary enemy, give up on advantage to get another.

At least it wasn't Soresu, the anti-blaster style was one that would make it more difficult than anything else.

Tossing aside the ruined blaster pistol, Alec wondered if he could get his hands on some of the Magnaguard wreckage in order to craft a pair that would be immune to lightsabers, he hated losing his weapons.

Retreating from another series of attacks before his empty hand brushed the cool material of the window..

A warning from the force as the inquisitor charged gave him a path to respond.

Rolling backwards, hair rubbing against the transperisteel while he pulled with the force, yanking his opponent closer than the man had expected and kicking out with an armored boot with all of his strength into the soft flesh between his enemies legs.

The attack was enough leverage as he fired on full auto into the window, while the man went forwards into the superheated material before it gave way into the darkness beyond.

Alec was back on his feet and following with a leap into the darkness, following the light of the blade firing his blaster while passing over it to land on one of the rooftops.

The body was laying there, smoldering where the weapon was in contact with the cloth the inquisitor had been wearing after slicing cleanly through the mans waist.

Reaching down he gripped the weapon and flipped it off before adding it to one of the pouches on his belt, a weapon for two, even if it was a melee weapon for two of his best blasters.

Alec pulled his comlink from its own pouch and held it to his lips, regretting being stuck ditching the helmet in order to face off with his foe.

"This is Theta 5," he stated while fighting his racing heart, "Inquisitor down, moving to the ship."


	11. Battleground

**Note:** Continuing from the last part

* * *

The densely packed buildings made his passage relatively easy as he bolted across the rooftops towards the docking bay.

Alec was digging through his pockets while another building in the distance detonated into a fireball rising towards the clouds giving him a hint as to where the other Theta's were at the moment if the flashes of blaster fire weren't enough.

"Five," he heard Twitch's voice from the comlink, "Three's hijacked us a Juggernaut after we got a bit distracted."

Yep, that was Hammer alright, "Distracted Four?"

"Traitor fuel depot's go boom."

Yep, that explained it well enough.

"Hey," he heard Hammer over the same signal, "Did you know they've got a munitions depot as well, sure its war surplus, but still."

Great, more explosions and a delay in leaving.

"Guys," he responded while spotting a trail of Stormies heading towards the running firefight, "You have incoming, I'll attempt to slow them down."

The force was with him, he knew it and it was both his greatest ally and weapon.

Reaching out, he ripped the rear most of the stormtroopers from the ground and yanked him towards him.

Moving in a blink of an eye he grabbed the armored mans blaster rifle and pistol before applying more force to send the man crashing through the corner of the rooftop and down towards the streets. His target screaming the entire way until the final impact and crunch of armor collapsing upon impact brought silence.

There was no death, well, the code wasn't quite right on that count.

There was death, lots of it, and he was about to bring a whole lot more.

His next step was almost to easy as he let the force guide him.

Just as the Clone Troopers had, Stormies carried grenades in their utility belt.

The street was filled with fire from the simultaneous detonation of nearly a hundred scattered grenades before he continued his run, holstering the stolen blaster pistol in his empty holster and holding the rifle ready.


	12. Broken Ground

**Note:** Continuing from the last part

* * *

Twitch grinned as the flashes of cannon fire ripped through a hasty roadblock the stormtroopers had thrown up, the armor of the troopers providing no protection from the heavier weapons of the Juggernaut as it rocketed full tilt through the city.

"Dyre," he heard One yell, "We've got incoming, Bombers from the look of the profile."

"Damn it Tank," came the response as the armored vehicle plowed through the side of a building, shuddering for a moment before powering its way clear.

"On it," Twitch yelled as he spun the turret and brought the selector up, "Knew I was saving the rockets for something."

"And we knew we were keeping you around for something more than your cheery disposition," Hammer cracked while strafing the street ahead to force the traitors back.

"Okay, inbound bomber at full attack speed," the demolitions expert whispered as the wheels in his mind began to turn, "Dumbfire only rockets, no proximity fuses."

He triggered the heavy laser cannon into one of the buildings with one hand while the other seemed to dance upon the console.

"The enemy is to low for standard targeting in this environment," he continued in a monotone letting the data fill his thoughts, "Timing the detonation should work correctly, especially if I can disable the..."

"Here they come!" Tank declared as the howl of the twin ion-engines reached their ears.

"Well, here goes nothing," Twitch stated as he fired the rockets.

Four contrails as the building he'd been coring with the cannons collapsed with the weapons passing through, the disabled impact detonators letting them pass through the weakened structure seconds before it collapsed to continue at an angle into the city where the building blocked the paths of the targeting computers.

The countdown reached zero and the horizon blossomed into a fireball as the rockets detonated along the TIE's flightpath.

They were anti-personnel and armor weapons, Twitch knew that, the particulars of their systems made that clear and they had been designed to basically clear the road on impact for allied forces to close in unhampered. However, the large blast radius', shrapnel, and an ion pulse core were just as dangerous in the sky if you could set them off on their target.

"Good shooting," Dyre commented as the blue flash of the ion burst faded at the rooftops that shielded the enemy from sight, "But one's still up there."

No time for another shot, the launchers were still in their reload cycle, not to mention the calculations and programming would take to long.

"Not good."

A flash above as the solar panels glinted in the sunlight, a moment of blue, the signal of the heavy bomb being launched as he closed his eyes in preparation for the end.

Then the entire world shook.

* * *

The force flowed through him, and he followed its guidance.

Yoda had once told the younglings something that once more pushed into his conscious mind.

_Feel, don't think._

A bomber had survived his companions attack, something that could easily kill them.

Alec had to do something, but what.

Again the words of the venerable master filled his thoughts.

_Do or do not. There is no try._

He closed his eyes and let the force guide him as he let out a breath.

The universe seemed to slow around him and the warmth touched him, almost as the song of a thousand birds in perfect harmony amidst the smoke and ashes of the battlefield while the screams died out.

His hand reached almost instinctively to the rifle he'd acquired off of one of his foes and brought it up while dropping into a crouch.

For a mere moment he could feel the thoughts of the Bombers pilot as the black gloved hands readied to pull the trigger and release the bombs that would spell the doom of the other members of his squad.

He would not let that happen.

_Trust in the Force._

Memories seemed to cloud his thoughts as he deactivated the safety and took in a deep breath.

Air filled his lungs as possibilities seemed to blossom in his mind, trillions of possible variants of what he could do at this point.

His finger caressed the trigger as if it were a lover and then squeezed tight as time and space seemed to snap back to normal, a bolt of energy sizzling across the sky.

The bolt collided with one of the heavy bombs the instant its launcher began to cycle open.

The perfect shot, one in trillions.

And the craft detonated from within as the high yield warhead did as expected in an enclosed space, triggering the rest of its load with sympathetic reactions as that section of the sky seemed to burn like fire, a flash of blinding light and the bomber was gone, only an expanding ball of smoke and fire left in its place hanging in the clear sky as if it were a miniature sun set there by some mythical god.

And then he gasped as power surged from above, it felt as if something vile had been released he looked upwards while words failed him.

A Super Star Destroyer was in orbit...


	13. Shattered Skies

**Note:** Now for the start of the space portion...

* * *

"An Imperial Fleet entered orbit," came the cry from one of the sensor stations as Rex watched the starfield from the bridge, "The Enforcer and the Vengeance is with them."

"The Vengeance," the rogue ARC commented, "Jerec?"

He paused for a moment while glancing over the displays, "Damned Inquisitors."

Keying the fleet wide comms, he took a slow and shallow breath.

"All ships, this is Rex," the clone spoke, "Prepare to jump, we're moving to engage the Traitors."

He paused for a moment, as he transmitted direct orders to the other ships before bringing up the shipwide only channel.

"All hands," Rex ordered, emotion vanishing from his face, "Battle stations."

He released the breath as he keyed off the comms.

"And may the force be with us."

* * *

Epsilon grimaced as he felt the ship shudder before jerking wildly into real space.

The Twilight was still leading the spearhead, being wrenched from hyperspace momentarily early hadn't stopped that.

"Sir," yelled one of the other clones, "They have two Interdictors!"

He stood there for a mere instant before a grin crossed his lips.

"Fake heavy damage and listing," he ordered while turning to the weapons station, "Inform Rex that it's faked, but tell him that I have a plan."

"Understood," came the affirmative from the comms officer as the older clone straightened his uniform.

"Get all of the SPHA into the hanger bay," came the next order as he watched the fleet accelerate forwards, moving towards the planet through the enemy formations, forcing the enemy Star Destroyers to check their fire rather than risk friendly fire leaving light resistance as fighters seemed to begin their dances amidst the almost one sided turbolaser fire, "Get us underneath the Enforcer."

He grinned as his ship was seemingly forgotten in the fray, attention being given to the ships actively shooting rather than the one that was seemingly damage.

"Evacuate the bridge," Epsilon ordered, "transfer command to the emergency stations."

A pause as all eyes turned to him.

"I'm not joking," he ordered, "Move it people!"

And then the rush began.

* * *

Rex watched as the Guardian seemed to accelerate for a moment as its haphazard course brought it directly underneath the super Star Destroyer, command tower being sheered off as most of its bulk was inside the larger crafts cavernous hangerbay.

He realized what Epsilon had planned as the aged and battle scarred Venator's hanger bay opened and the SPHA's opened fire with their turbolasers inside the larger crafts shields and armor...

The blue glow of the station keeping engines of the craft sputtered and died moments later as both fleets seemed to just watch what had happened for a moment.

Without pausing, the Guardian rolled from its place within the Enforcer and kicked in its landing thrusters to push away from the SSD, and at the same time push the failing hulk on a new course.

The traitor fleet had been positioned closer to lunar orbit and had still been moving to encircle the launch sights the strike team could use from the planet, however that same starting position now created a greater disaster as the Enforcer slipped up against the gravity well of the moon and started its swan dive to destruction.

"Prepare the ground forces for deployment," he ordered as the remainder of the fleet pushed on, still deploying fighters, "Hopefully Theta can hold out until we can."


	14. Full Throttle

**Note:** Let the war continue

* * *

Alec dropped to street level moments before someone opened fire on his position with an E-Web.

The stormies seemed to be learning not to get to close with either the Juggernaut or himself. However, their choices created other opportunities.

Reaching out with the force, he located the position of the weapon and slipped a grenade free from his utility belt.

Tossing the weapon, he used the force to carry it higher.

A momentary scream signaled that he'd succeeded before the grenade detonated followed a mere fraction of a second later by the generator going up as he dove for cover.

The uncontrolled detonation ripped through buildings and sent debris upwards in an eerie copy of a volcanic eruption while he bolted away through the alleys while covering his eyes from the flash of light that followed.

Diving aside, the shockwave blasted past him and into the open while he spotted what was waiting for him.

"They brought a tank?"  


* * *

Epsilon grinned as the ship shuddered once more under the fire from at least a dozen foes.

A maximum burn sent them on a course through the deployment zone, letting the still open hanger disgorge the LAAT's to carry everything available to the surface while the guns sprayed wildly through the Imperial fleet.

"Sir," came the cry, "All ships clear, shields are failing."

He grinned in response, "Suit up for EV, we've lost the Guardian, but we've got an opportunity."

"Sir?"

"Point us at the command ship, but pass the hanger as close to one of the Interdictors as possible without hitting it."

"We don't have the turbolasers in the hanger anymore sir."

"That's not what I'm planning," he commented, "Especially since the fools leading from their end seem to have forgot the battle over Coruscant."

"What's the plan?"

"Well, they've essentially crippled my ship, so I figure why not take one of their shiny new ones."  


* * *

Wings ducked under the counter and kept moving while slipping a new power pack into his blast cannon.

The distant explosions had warned him that Theta had run into problems.

When the bombers lifted off, he'd decided that there were more important things to do than just wait for Theta to return for the escape.

The freighter was just another spacecraft to the Imperials, and he'd elected to skip the armor and try for a little of the stealth that his squad didn't seem to possess.

Two shots dropped twice as many guards, even though they were army rather than Stormtroopers, but forcing him to reload the blaster shotgun before moving on through the structure.

He started to move into the darkened hallways, reducing his speed and keeping the weapon shouldered.

Only a fraction of a seconds warning had him diving backwards while blaster fire ripped across the hallway from one of the side passages.

"Well," he commented with a growl before brushing dust off, "That could have gone better."

A brief pause before chucking a grenade into the room, bouncing it off the door and deeper inside.

"Hope you like my housewarming gift," he grunted an instant before the blast signaled a clear room and Wings continued on his way, "Hope the guys appreciate this, I'm not really trained for this crap."

A moments pause at the foot of the lift.

"Give me a fighter or bomber and I'm good," his muttering continued, "Close quarters is more of the job for an actual commando rather than a pilot."  


* * *

"What the hell is Epsilon up to?" Rex asked himself as he watched the smaller Star Destroyer accelerate from its deployment arc and along the edge of the enemy formation.

A slight shudder as another barrage shattered the Guardians shields.

"The Interdictor?"

A moments pause as he tried to remember more of the pieces about fleet command, something that was not really in his direct training.

"He's going to try to take it," came the realization.

He turned to the ships captain, "Cover the Guardian, keep it up and try to help Epsilon do what he's planning."  


* * *

Rolling backwards before pushing off with his hands into a flip as the tank fired.

His timing was right, letting the shock wave carry him through a window feet first while he dove into the force, letting it guide him.

He was moving in less than a heartbeat, dashing through the apartment building before noticing an Imperial Lander coming in low.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he groaned as the insignia came into view and the hatch opened at just above roof level revealing at least a dozen figures activating lightsabers.

Twirling both pistols in his hands, Alec started going through every possible way he could, hopefully, pull this off.

"This is Theta Five," he stated into his comlink after a moments deliberation, "Looks like the dark side crowd just got some serious reinforcements."

A pause as the figures leaped clear and into free fall for a mere instant before landing on the rooftops.

"And those reinforcements have lightsabers."

Reaching out with the force, he reacted instinctively.

"Size matters not," he quoted the old saying of the grandmaster of the Jedi Order, before snatching the tank from the street and lobbed it at the lander.

His foes seemed to panic as the multi-ton, armored repulsor tank went airborne and collide with their transport directly overhead while its shots went wild into the streets and buildings below.

Dark jedi and stormtroopers alike scattered, leaping from the rooftop when the crafts shields collapsed and the ground vehicle plowed into the cockpit before bursting into flames from the weapons attempting to continue firing even though jammed. The twisted mass of metal lurched forwards and then fell, engines detonating seconds before impact with the office building below.

The building pancaked sequentially, each floor giving out in turn while the fuel of the craft caught fire in an unholy conflagration scorching the sky before the wave of dust, debris, and ash swept through the building Alec was standing in, concealing his vision to miss what his ears warned him of.

He reacted to the sound and the moments scream of the force just in time to avoid a pair of crimson lightsaber blades that would have sliced through his neck and waist.

Alec fired both weapons, alternating fire as he cartwheeled through another series of strikes before one of them hit him with a blast from the force that caught him off guard and sent him flying to slam through a wall and on.

"You know," he commented while rolling to his feet in time to see the two dark jedi tear through a more intact part of the wall on their way towards him, "Two on one just ain't fair."

The one that seemed to be in the lead of his foes appeared to shrug.

"But it doesn't look like you care."

The fire suppression sprinklers seemed to choose that instant to activate.  


* * *

Bravo flight accelerated out of their mothership in tight formation, skimming the Twilights hull close enough to keep themselves indistinct from the main ship to enemy sensors.

"Alright boys," Brand stated as he watched the countdown on screen, "Go to full attack speed towards the Vengeance."

"We copy boss," Lance responded, "What's the plan?"

A low chuckle was the first response the squadron commander gave as the four fighters changed direction and rocketed into the firefight.

"We pull the inquisitors teeth," he commented, "The painful way."

"So," Thorn asked, "In other words, hit the guns and launchers?"

"I knew you were a genius," Brand answered with an audible grin, "Keep your guns hot, take out any Imps that gets in your cross hairs on the way there."

A flash of energy from the fourth member of the squadron.

"That's one for me," Slammer commented, "Games in my favor."

"You did not just challenge me," Thorn retorted while opening up on another, "We're even again."

Twin detonations up ahead before Lance added his say to the mix, "Now I'm ahead."  


* * *

A deep rumble bought his attention for a moment, an AT-AT was lumbering past outside, either to search the wreck for survivors or on its way to where the Rest of Theta was still running amok.

He wasn't exactly sure how he'd missed its presence, but it did give him an idea.

Holstering one of his pistols, Alec dove to the side while the dark jedi duo launched their next attack.

Rolling back, he slipped the light saber he'd taken from the inquisitor and threw it through the window.

He charged while reaching out with the force, guiding the throw as the crimson blade ignited mid-flight, sizzling as the water touched the energy.

Alec spun the weapon much like a saw blade as it entered the void and sliced into the neck of the walker before spiraling back to cleanly sever it. His feet shattered the already sliced window as a leap let him follow the glowing weapon while calling it back to his hand in mid-leap.

The thrum of his opponents blades let him know they followed as he reached out and snagged one of the internal bulkheads of the craft and redirected inside the transport while calling the thrown blade back to hand.

At least three dozen storm troopers were waiting for him inside as Alec returned the weapon to his belt and drew the pistol once more.

Time was precious as he withdrew deeper into the force, letting the mystical energy field fill him as his body moved of its own accord, twirling between flashes of blaster fire while returning fire with both hands and letting the screams inform him as the dark confines flashed with the speed of a strobe.

The world seemed to snap back as the bloody light flooded the chamber as the last white armored soldier fell silent to the deck plate.

Whatever they were expecting from him, what they got was not it as Alec drew on the force again and lashed out, sending the fallen bodies towards them in a wave, throwing both into the air with all the power he could muster.  


* * *

Fade slipped his helmet on and calibrated its interface with his craft while waiting for the order for launch.

Unlike the fighter and bomber pilots already scrambled, he was a specialist.

Specifically, he was a recon pilot for one of the craft entering service only a few months before the end of the war, the Longprobe variant of the Y-Wings.

Thankfully, the fleets meager stores of them were of the older variant that replaced half the bombs with a sensor package that had been updated by the Geonosians before they fell to the Empire.

"I need to get down to the planet," came a suprisingly feminine voice, prompting him to turn.

"Well," he stammered for a moment, "I'm only allowed to fly if Rex says so, recon craft are..."

He stopped talking when she glared at him.

"Fine," came his acquiescence, "Get in."  


* * *

"Now lets see here," Wings commented as he sat his helmet on the desk after pushing the smoking corpse of the control officer out of the way.

The access codes were easy enough, unchanged from those the team had gotten during their insertion.

"And Lockdown," he stated as he triggered the security setting, sealing up the landing facility, the distant grinding of the blast doors locking into place being the only easily understandable reward for the effort as he flipped out his comlink.

"Twitch," he stated, as it activated, "Got an idea that needs your insight."

"Go ahead," the response was quick and punctuated by the sound of weapons fire.

"I've got full access to the anti-air defenses, and I was thinking that I could invert their IFF settings."

"Invert their…" Twitches comment trailed off.

A moments pause.

"Wings, you're a sithspawned genius!"

"Then tell me how to pull this off."  


* * *

Fives grimaced as the pod shook violently as the retros flared.

One of the younger clones was cackling madly as their method of descent began to vibrate.

It was a basic idea, and one that worked relatively well since they did have an overabundant supply of escape pods. Essentially strip out most of the gear meant for keeping the occupants alive for more than a half hour or so and use that space to add harnesses for a squad of clone troopers as a way of landing on the planet as quickly as possible.

Rex had allowed the use of two of them, each loaded with a dozen soldiers and their equipment and fired at the closest and safest positions for such a landing, namely one without air traffic that could knock them off course, and ignoring what was on the ground with less than two meters of armor in the way.

Echo was in the second pod with Denal.

A harsh whine filled the pod, the audible sound of the inertial dampeners kicking in before impact as the shields flared followed by the sound of tearing metal before the pods outer shell exploded outwards in a relatively simplistic anti-personnel effect while letting them out of the single use craft.

"Alright boys," he yelled as the harnesses released and he snatched up his blaster and fired at the scattering stormtroopers, "Go time!"  


* * *

Epsilon waited in silence among the crewmen assembled within the hanger, their uniforms replaced with either environmental suits or armor.

Alpha's presence was a blessing as the ARC that had been acting as one of the advisers for the landing, but had chosen to remain aboard the Guardian, though he hadn't said much of anything since his rescue.

He wondered if part of the reason the man had chosen to remain aboard was that Ventress had done so as well, again something that could easily turn the tide of his planned mission more in their favor, not to mention the five suits of armor that Theta had cobbled together from the twisted recesses of their minds.

The rumble of the hanger opening above them prompted him to glance at the stars and flashes of weapons fire while the ships slow corkscrew slowly revealed the Interdictor his plans involved.

One word exited his lips in a commanding roar as he leaped from the flight deck and into the void.

"Charge!"

The wave of white clad figures passed through the black to land upon the hull with what felt like hours to them, but merely minutes.

The terminal course of their Star Destroyer merged with its acceleration, aiming the dagger shape at the remaining heart of the enemy fleet, the Inquisitors personal ship as their dark force user ally activated her lightsabers and sliced through one of the hatches, metal seeming to glow and boil at the touch as he readied his rifle.

An armored boot from the ARC kicked it in a half second before he dropped a frag through the now cooled opening.  


* * *

Alec waited for a moment before reaching out with the force.

He barely received enough warning for his plan in return for that action, but it was more than he needed.

A blast of power ripped the side door from its moorings and away as he dove from the hatch with all the speed he could muster while the two dark jedi returned through the neck of the walker.

His trap worked perfectly as the anti-vehicular mines he'd left behind after ejecting them the first time detonated, ripping through the unarmored bodies of the two just as easily as they did the heavier armor of the walkers torso.

Debris and smoldering scrap rained from the sky as he landed in a low crouch and rose to his feet.

Footsteps echoed, prompting a spin towards them to reveal a trio of others from that transport.

"Is Palpatine cloning you guys or something?" he asked as more lightsabers activated.  


* * *

Three to one was not the best odds, but he was stuck with the hand dealt by fate and the force.

His former masters words echoed through his mind as Alec threw caution to the wind and gave himself fully into the force.

He trusted the force, and let it work through him as part of his mind seemed to watch the maelstrom.

_Don't think! Do!_

Simple instruction, but something that he had relied upon more times since being sent from the temple.

He had once believed that it was because he was wrong somehow, something that they didn't want to deal with.

It was something that he'd been forced to come to terms with, and Alec realized that he was never the right kind of person to be a Jedi.

Crimson blades swirled around him as he tucked and rolled forwards, plowing into the center darksider before pushing upwards into a flip and spin while firing with both pistols in a flurry of blaster bolts all about before landing in a crouch while rushing in once more.

Images flashed before his eyes as he blocked one of his foes arms, the momentary skin to skin contact letting him unleash one of the skills he had not used since the interrogation that had horrified his master.

Every disease that he had learned to treat was something he could mimic through the force, or at least the symptoms, and judging from the frenzied screaming his foe suddenly was full of, he'd managed to pull the stunt off, and the mans arm was rapidly darkening and seeming to rot, but he hadn't time to congratulate himself before the remaining deuce of foes came at him.

Alec twirled, positioning himself directly between the two and rolling between the blades that almost howled for his life.

He could feel the force throbbing through everything as he seemed to dance amidst that which cried for his death before dropping in a low crouch as the two weapons locked above his head, giving him another moment to go offensive, firing both blasters low and just beneath the belt of one while a spinning kick tripped the other.

Both force users retreated at least a dozen steps from him with some difficulty, but their own assault was not without damage as well, signified by the pieces of Katarn armor falling to the pavement where the lightsabers had sliced through the plasteel as if it weren't even there.

He felt the force surge and attacked, not by closing in on the pair, but tearing into the city itself and with a surge of effort tore through the supports of one of the more damaged structures and toppled it into another, setting off a chain reaction of collapsing and crashing buildings, showering the street in rubble as he went vertical, moving through the falling rubble as easily as he had on the ground with the two, injured, dark jedi in rapid pursuit.

A blur of darkness and motion was the only warning he'd gotten before a statue that he belatedly identified as of Palpatine came plowing through the falling wreckage at him followed by yet another of the red lightsaber wielding crazies.

"Well," he commented with a grunt while feeling the rush of obsidian passing a hairsbreadth from him, "Did you spend your originality quota on that double bladed toy of yours?"

The only response he got from that was being kinetically slammed to the ground hard enough to bounce.

"And," Alec added with a wince after a brief pause due to yet another lunging at him after he'd kicked off of what used to be the lightning rod of a taller structure, "Is this a yes to the cloning theory?"  


* * *

"What the..." Fade yelled as he brought his craft in low as the city seemed to begin tearing itself apart beneath them.

"Sithspawn," Ahsoka commented as the battle came into view ahead of them, dark jedi fighting someone through the street.

"Well," the recon pilot commented as he stabilized his shields and readied the concussion missiles in the remaining tubes, "Seems like we get to help even the odds a bit here."

A brief pause as the HUD lit up, "Take the controls, I'll use the flyswatter."

He paused for a moment while something very large rocketed past to impale a water storage tank some distance behind them.

"And that was?" he asked with a blink.

"A statue," the jedi answered with a confused tone, "I think."

"Oh goodie," Fade muttered, "And I thought we were the ones with the heavy weapons."

"Slight change of plans," Ahsoka ordered, "Retain control, get me close and prepare to reseal the cockpit."

"Reseal the..." he began to question when the togruta flipped the release and leaped from the starfighter, "Oh, that."

"Perfect," Fade continued to mutter, "Just perfect, now I'm talking to myself."

His commentary stopped just long enough to fire missile at a target of opportunity.

"Rex'll kill me," the clone pilot commented as he banked into a side street, listening to windows shatter at his passage, "If the shrinks don't do it for him."

"Fade," came the comms a fraction of a second later.

Well, it seemed like Rex would win that race.

"Yeah boss?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"The Jedi ordered me to convey her to the surface," he responded, "And she just left."

"Sensors say you haven't landed."

"She decided that an active entrance into the fight was more her style it seems," was the best response that didn't directly state that he let Jedi Tano take a flying leap out of a starfighter at full attack speed and relatively high up, "I'm attempting to try my hand at close air support."

The groan coming from the fleets leader was rather distinctive.  


* * *

Epsilon grunted slightly as the magnetic grapples on his boots pulled him up against the deck seconds after Alpha and Ventress had gone ahead into the breach.

Comms silence was in effect for those in the attack, but he could tell that those two were still communicating somehow.

A slight shudder ran down his spine at that thought, he'd read about the exploits of both of them, and now with the trail of destruction carved through the Interdictors corridors, those tales were no exaggeration.

"We have full control of the core," came the comment from one of the younger clones, a tech, "The ship is ours."

The younger man blinked, "Sensors report that the Guardian has been destroyed."

"She was a good ship," he stated in response, "Did she stay on course?"

"Yes, but the target is not dead, the enemy commander apparently ordered some of his destroyers to ram her when she got to close to be killed by guns."

"Well then," Epsilon stated as the hatches sealed around them, "Change this crafts designator on the friendly IFF with her code."

"Understood," came the response, "As a side not, she did take a Victory, two Imperators, and a half-dozen corvettes with her on that run, at least if you count those caught in the detonation when her reactor went critical."

"Good," the old clone captain responded, "Let them fear the Guardian."  


* * *

Blasterfire burned the sky as the clone troopers charged out of their drop pods.

Fives threw himself to the side as a grenade detonated, tucking in his shoulder and rolling even as his finger compressed the trigger and sent a suitable response at the one who had thrown it.

He felt relaxed as the familiar situation of the battlefield carried him into the correct mindset while hearing orders yelled in the distance, Denal's crew in the second pod clearing their own area to allow the ground forces to land to take the area until they could finish the recovery of the insertion team.

A scream from one of his brothers prompted his own shout, "Get a medic over here, we've got wounded!"

"E-Web," came the yell from one of the others.

"Sniper, take their heavy weapons down!"

An echoing roar as the first of the LAAT/i's flashed past overhead, weapons burning into the Imperial ranks before the gunship exited sight, but the engines strained into a high-G turn to pass across the ground forces once more.

Dust flowed and cleared with the rushing back drafts of the aircraft and explosions from grenades forcing the troopers on both sides to rely on the helmet packages rather than normal sight.

Suddenly it was clear for just long enough for him to catch a glimpse of a TIE rocketing in only to be ripped apart by the surface guns.

"Troopers," he ordered while discarding an empty power cell in favor of a fresh one in his rifle, "Charge!"

"Sarge!" came the frantic yell as he started running for the enemy, "AT-ST supporting them!"

"Sith," he hissed, "No choice, we still need those positions!"

A moments pause as the chicken walker stepped from the ruins and turned towards his men and him.

"Incoming!"  


* * *

Bravo Squad dove close to the enemy Star Destroyer, maintaining formation.

"Alright," Brand whistled as his shields flashed on a near hit from a turbolaser bolt, "Break formation, take out any emplacements you can get."

Calls of affirmation came from all three others in his squadron.

"Remember, call it in if you get an eyeball on you."

"Lousy hosts these boys are," Thorne chuckled as he fired again and again at one of the towers before rolling to one side in order to avoid a missile launch.

"Well," came the answer from Slammer, "I guess it's up to the best squadron in the fleet to teach them the manners."

"Cut the chatter," Brand stated, "Keep your mind in the game boys."  


* * *

Twitch blinked as he listened in on the comms, "Guys, the assault squads are having walker trouble."

"Well," Hammer muttered as the world outside seemed to turn white for an instant, "Scratch one depot, so lets go help."

"Tank," Dyre yelled from his position, "Bring us about, lets see how the Imps deal with one of these babies."

"Is that a tank?" Hammer added from his position as the world returned to focus.

"Hey guys," Tank responded with far to much cheer to be healthy, "I think those things can be used as ramps!"

"Tank," Dyre commented in a strangely calm voice as the entire vehicle jerked wildly, "If we survive this, I'm going to kill you!"

"If I don't get to him first," Hammer muttered in response.  


* * *

"Glad you could make it to the party," Alec quipped as Ahsoka dropped in, blade flashing into existence a mere instant before slamming into one of the crimson ones with the force to drive the dark jedi into the ground as the momentum crushed the injured figure while the togruta flipped backwards and beside him, "Was wondering if you'd gotten lost along the way."

"Well," she answered, "So much to do, so little time."

"Is that your fifth or sixth outfit before deigning to grace us with your presence?"


End file.
